Product Description

Big city mobsters and the Broadway stage collide hilariously in this side-splitting all-star comedy that had audiences and critics rolling in the aisles! John Cusack (SERENDIPITY, HIGH FIDELITY) stars as David Shayne, an idealistic young writer who'll do anything to get his first Broadway play off the ground -- even if it means teaming up with the mob! Surrounded by a wacky cast of characters including a gangster's ditzy girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly, LIAR, LIAR), a tipsy actress (Dianne Wiest in her Academy Award(R)-winning performance -- Best Supporting Actress, 1994), and a mob hit man (Chazz Palminteri, THE USUAL SUSPECTS), Shayne's got to pull it all off before the curtain falls and bullets start to fly!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8652 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-04-20
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.com
One of Woody Allen's best films of the '90s, Bullets over Broadway stars John Cusack as a virtual Woody surrogate, a neurotic, Jazz Age writer whose new play sounds wooden and unrealistic to a low-level mobster (Chazz Palminteri) assigned to watch over his boss's actress-girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly). When the hood starts contributing better story ideas and dialogue than what the official playwright can conjure, questions (not unlike those of Amadeus) about the price we pay to make art at the expense of other responsibilities are intriguingly raised. Palminteri gives a very interesting performance as the enforcer waking up to the desperate (and almost feminine) demands of his own creative psyche, and Dianne Wiest (who won an Oscar), Tracey Ullman, Jim Broadbent, and Jennifer Tilly are very funny together playing the ensemble cast of Cusack's play. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
A nicely structured piece of silliness from Woody Allen, set in the theatre world of the nineteen-twenties. John Cusack is the Woody substitute, an earnest young playwright who needs to discover an existence beyond the stage; Chazz Palminteri steals the picture as the taciturn gangster who swaps places with him, becoming as ruthless in his aesthetics as he is with a gun. Around this neat switch Allen assembles a crowd of near-caricatures-opportunities for Dianne Wiest, Jim Broadbent, Jennifer Tilly, and others to show their stuff. The film offers a rematch of Art vs. Life, the old encounter that Allen set up in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and at the finale of "Manhattan Murder Mystery"; this version has the same pleasurable swiftness. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Pure hilarity
As a die hard Woody Allen fan, I can honestly state that this is one of his best efforts. The characters are so incredibly good (dare I say delicious?) and the actors who bring them to life are equally exquisite. From Dianne Wiest ("Don't speak...Don't speak") to Jennifer Tilly ("Hey, Venus, where's that hooch?") to Chaz Palmentieri("You don't write the way people talk")to John Cusack ("I think I'll go now and get the psychiatric help I need"). The rest of the cast is equally marvelous, especially Tracey Ullman. She really is nothing short of brilliant in everything she does. This movie is just a delight throughout. It is truly droll and clever, never once loosing it's intelligence. The attention to detail is admirable, so much so that the film seemingly leaps out at you from the screen. I've seen this film more times than I care to mention and each time I find myself enjoying it more. Only Woody Allen could have devised such an ironic plot twist. He is, without question, the O. Henry of the cinema. One final note: No one, and I mean no one, can make New York seem more fabulous and intoxicating than Mr. Allen. All his films are love letters to this the greatest of American cities. This is to the person who accused Woody Allen of preaching through the Rob Reiner character: Give me a major break. He was spoofing the tendency of some over-indulgent artists to dramatize and take himself too seriously. Sometimes a cigar, my friend, is just a cigar. Don't read so much into things. It can sometimes get you into trouble.

Great
Why do "reviewers" of Woody Allen always have to qualify their praise with something lame like "not his best, but...". It sucks! This move is as good as any Woody Allen movie I've ever seen, and that's saying a hell of a lot, and I've seen a hell of a lot of them. Own a lot too. This movie was colorful, funny, filled with fascinating characters, had more plot twists that a dog's hind leg, and the perfect ending. It was as original as anything could possibly be. I won't give away any of the plot, I'll leave that to the clods who have nothing else to say about the picture. Woody Allen is not in this movie, that disappointed me the first time I saw it, but now that I've seen it again, I don't mind. It was great. Though as a rule I prefer his movies with him in them. Also the movie had substance and structure. It was well-constructed and moved fast. I liked it a lot. Note: pay attention to the background music (songs actually) at significant events in the flick. I highly recommend it.

Woody Allen's best -- at least for casting
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe no poll has ever been made about which one is most deemed as Woody Allen's masterpiece by far. I once thought that we seemingly tend to pick whichever we can best relate to, but recently when I had a chance to sit down and watch five of his movies all over again -- "Annie Hall", "Manhattan", "Hannah and her sisters", "Bullets over Broadway", "Mighty Aphrodite" -- I realized that any of us could easily relate to at least something in each of those great films. That would define Allen's genius when it comes to directing (romantic or un-romantic?) comedies. When it comes to casting, though, "Bullets over Broadway" must be the best of all, featuring the finest performance of every actor. Not only the credit must go to those in lead roles (John Cusack -- who played Woody Allen's would-be character, Dianne Wiest, Jack Warden, Jennifer Tilly), but the supporting cast was superb as well (with Tracy Ullman as Eden, Chazz Palmenterri as Cheech, Rob Reiner as Flender, Mary-Louise Parker as Ellen, and Stacey Nelkin -- Allen's ex-girldfriend -- as Rita). This film was perfect in each of its scenes, but if I had to pick my favorite one, it would be the final dialogue between Cusack, Parker, Reiner and Nelkin. I don't remember having heard in any other comedy a dialogue that's so hilarious and so thought-provoking at the same time.